Province closes 200 aid posts

By DOROTHY MARK THE East Sepik provincial government has closed 200 aid posts in the past three weeks because they need renovations. Governor Allan Bird while visiting the East Sepik community in Madang said the government’s free health care had not been working for some people. He said the 200 aid posts were not in the acceptable conditions to be allowed to continue operating. Bird, a former chairman of the Boram hospital board, said he knew what the problem was. The hospital was collecting fees from patients and buying its own medicine when other hospitals around the country had run dry. The province will renovate the Boram hospital through a K300 million funding from the Australian government. “East Sepik will be the home of one of the best hospitals in the country,” Bird said. The East Sepik community in Madang met Bird at the Tusbab Secondary School hall to catch up on news of developments in their province. Bird told them that every single cocoa tree in East Sepik would be replaced by new ones in a programme which would begin at the end of the year. “We are also planning to put up a chocolate factory so that we provide employment for our people while we develop cocoa into a finished product,” he said.